Some dried up hippy chick is pissed that the Toronto mayor is cutting public funding for her hobby farm, so she's using a BS story about psychic abilities to garner publicity and hopefully support for stopping the cut.

\So what
\\Psychic abilities are not real

I really have to hand it to the first person to come up with this scam. It's brilliant, really. You can make the animal "say" anything you like, maybe using body language cues, and who's going to refute it? Not the schmuck who hired you in the first place, and certainly not the animal. There's literally no chance of failure as there may be in cold reading a human being. Free money.

OTOH, there may be people out there who have deluded themselves into thinking they actually have this "power", whether due to an ability to subconsciously read body language well, or through simple wishful thinking, or through reading the books located between the Chakra and Reiki aisles at the local new age bookstore. For me, it's a judgement call to pity or scorn them.

Dughan: Are there such things as psychic abilities?

To a person who has them, they won't seem like "special powers" but just something else they experience in the world. Some people see aura's... others cannot see color at all. Some people hear far more acutely than I do and without my glasses I'm blind past a few feet... does that mean I should consider the people that have more "accurate" senses to be superhuman?

To presume that there aren't people out there with more sensory ability than you personally have is just plain silly. How far does that sensory ability extend? I don't know directly, but having been through enough things in my life to open my eyes to "more", I can confidently claim that what we normally perceive and what we CAN perceive is radically different. Now, just like with hearing and seeing, it would stand to reason that there are people who are naturally more inclined to be able to sense and feel things that others do not. Don't take my word for it, though... go out and find out for yourself. Go with an open mind and an open heart to touch directly the parts of reality we normally do not allow ourselves to be open to... but be warned that to do so means you'll never be able to look at things the same way again.

There are biological structures that can be observed and physical phenomena that can be described that are the basis of hearing and seeing. To date, there has been no organ or phenomena that has been shown to be the basis for what people commonly call psychic abilities.

It is possible that some people are more skilled at subconsciously picking up clues from body language and behaviour of the people around them, and can therefore to a limited extent guess what they are going to say and do next, but that isn't a psychic ability, it's just a subconscious cold-reading.

But hey, if you know someone who can see auras, consistently, then go earn yourself a bit of cash and take the James Randi challenge.

/Your heart has nothing to do with it.
//And if you open your mind too much, your brain will leak out.
///And auras are a symptom of migraines.

Articles like this is why I want to stab people in the face when they cry " Liberal Media"

There are probably a dozen people that are walking distance from offices of the Toronto Star that could form an intelligent coherent argument for keeping the Hobby farm or Zoo or what ever the fark it is , they have degrees and shiat and could draw you charts and graphs and use math and science to demonstrate the value of the thing .

But does the "Liberal Media" do that ?? NO!!

Instead they zero in to the fat bag of stupid attention whore who believes she can psychically talk to animals and who's whole argument for stopping the closer is that it is frightening the horses and chickens .

The horse does not know the zoo is closing , it does not have any concept of a Zoo or closing and here is the deal , If you could telepathically talk to the horse you dumb biatch it would blow the horse's mind that it is living on an island . Ownership , money , municipal government are beyond it's comprehension . You know what goes through a horses mind ? I will tell you .. " There's a fly on ass!" --"hey there is a person , maybe they have a sugarcube " -- " There's a fly on my ass" --- "need a drink of water" --

So saying that there is a Liberal media with a Liberal agenda to push their liberal ideas on the world , and that some how the cabal of liberals in the media thought that this THIS!!!! would further the liberal cause and strike a blow at the corporate conservative world just floors me that anyone could think such a thing .

I am the Libbyist Lib that ever Libbed and a part of me secretly wants to see the horses turned in to glue and and dog food just to make that retarded attention whore cry

/ Rant off

AbbeySomeone: Mugato: taurusowner: \\Psychic abilities are not real

I agree. I think Psych and The Mentalist are probably pretty accurate portrayals of "psychic ability".

Of course. Because the ability to communicate with animals is something you have never experienced so it can't possibly be real. There are many people that can do this but don't talk about it.

Ok. Create a scientific experiment that can be validated and repeated by others that proves this is possible and explains the mechanism by which it can occur. Do that and I'll believe it, even if I haven't done it myself.

\I know I cannot breath in space
\\I don't need to have been to space to know this

AbbeySomeone: Of course. Because the ability to communicate with animals is something you have never experienced so it can't possibly be real. There are many people that can do this but don't talk about it.

No. Psychic Abilities are not real. Magic is not real. These are all things that are impossible in our reality.

You cannot cast Magic Missile with your mind. Conversely, you cannot cast Charm Animal with your mind either.

You are not special. You are just like everyone else.

What's the big deal? Matthew Broderick has been doing this for years...

/seriously, I'm the first.. you guys are slipping.

Dughan: Mugato: I understand what you're saying, I've done shrooms before too.

It has nothing to do with drugs at all, and I have never "tripped out" like people claim they do under the effects of psychedelics. My brain holds fast to reality even on things that make others flip and go into spirit realms and the like... It's just how I am wired, I have come to find.

However I have sat in long, intense mediation sessions and experienced things directly that changed how I view the world. By long and intense, I mean going on for weeks at a time at a retreat center guided by skilled Monks and Nuns who seek to dwell deeply in the present moment. No drugs involved, just single pointed focus on the present moment, the here and the now. This allowed me to experience things I cannot explain without sounding utterly insane to a person who hasn't been through a similar experience.I think you were likely being tongue-in-cheek with your reply, however it is a common misconception that everyone who has "opened their third eye" (for lack of a more universal term) is just some drugged out hippie. I used to think and feel the same way... until I lived through it... until I opened myself up and got to just glimpse things that I had not seen before... and it made me wonder if there were people who saw like that all the time. Perhaps there are, perhaps there aren't; but because of my personal, direct experience, I can accept that there are people who perceive in ways far different than what is considered "normal". Does that make them psychic? I don't know... but I do know that there is far more to this existence than we allow ourselves to experience in most moments. When I asked the Monks about my experience, they would simply smile widely at me and ask what I thought I saw... beautiful, enigmatic bastards!

Imagination is a wonderful thing, isn't it?

Psychic threads are my favorite. It's hilarious to watch them insist that magic is real. I especially love "we don't need your validation" and the inevitable backpedaling to "I never said I believe in psychics!"

AbbeySomeone: Mugato: taurusowner: \\Psychic abilities are not real

I agree. I think Psych and The Mentalist are probably pretty accurate portrayals of "psychic ability".

Of course. Because the ability to communicate with animals is something you have never experienced so it can't possibly be real. There are many people that can do this but don't talk about it.

I can communicate with my pets extraordinarily well. I tamed a feral cat this way. This cat can "ask" me for very specific things, like a certain type of food. But I'm not psychic. I'm just good at body language and empathy.